


Love Is Just Internal Malware

by Unwoundclock



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hackers, Angst, Hacking, M/M, Minor Jake English/Dirk Strider, One-Sided Attraction, Sibling Incest, Slow Burn, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 06:37:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20287030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unwoundclock/pseuds/Unwoundclock
Summary: [ Hacker!AU ]Dave and Dirk work as hired hackers for anyone on the deep web willing to spend the money. When Dave isn't struggling with wannabe hacker trolls and anonymous clients, Dave is struggling with coming to terms with the very unrequited feelings he has for his brother.





	Love Is Just Internal Malware

_....rather live outside, I'd rather chip my pride than lose my mind out here...Maybe I'm a fool...Maybe I should move and settle..._ [ Dave turned off the alarm.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWgpBlz16-s)

The sink sputtered and lukewarm water shot from the rusty opening. It was always either freezing or boiling and there was nothing in-between. Everyday he had to choose between the two; the question was if he preferred being scalded or left shivering first thing in the morning. You'd think that someone renown as being a technical genius would know how to fix a broken faucet but sadly programming computers and fixing household appliances required two very different fields of expertise.

Dave decided on his torture method of the day: freezing shower it was. He stepped into the shower and braced himself against the tiled wall for the unpleasant onslaught of water. Needless to say the washing was done quickly. Just a handful of shampoo to the hair and shaking hands running underneath his underarms and down his stomach. When he got out he felt like a soggy mutt or something similar as he shivered and draped a towel over his head, rubbing veraciously.

After that less-than-enjoyable experience he pressed his palms to the marble rim of the sink and stared at the pale reflection looking back at him. God, there was a reason why he refused to ever live with anyone. Morning Dave was not a pretty sight. Not that he ever was, in his opinion. His friends always said he was the handsome one in their group but that was simply due to the so-called _"mystery factor"_ Dave had often explained to them. It was all bluff confidence and shades and cool black-and-green matrix-looking terminals that led the ladies into a frenzy. Mystery lets people project whatever they want. They could make him who they wanted without him ever doing a single fucking thing. He could picture Jade rolling her eyes in his mind and he smirked as he splashed water onto his face. It was still freezing.

His morning routine finished, he walked back into his bedroom and picked up a shirt off the ground. He brought it up to his nose and inhaled before deeming it clean enough to wear again. Not like he was going to go out anyway. On his desk both of his desktop machines were still trying to find the right combination of letters and numbers from a brute force process he started last night and he rubbed his eyes as he checked his laptop and saw that Pesterchum was bouncing up and down in the Dock. He had been getting a lot of spam messages recently and the only reason he hadn't mass-blocked them yet was because after he was done with his current job he was going to track every one of the poor bastards down and scare the shit out of them by sending their doxxed information to them. That was going to teach them not to mess with busy people anymore.

He opened the first message and raised an eyebrow at the orange username and his mouth ticked up slightly. If there was one person he always responded to without fail it was his brother.

**\-- timaeusTestified [TT] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 8:47 --**

TT: Hey.

TT: I thought I should give you a heads up since I saw something weird on my network. Sniffers. Check Wireshark.

TT: Found some files I wasn't supposed to. Got to pack and move locations. You're not compromised. I'm using Tails VM from the library right now.

TT: Catch you later. Stop trying to crack anything related to P_413 it leads nowhere and was probably a honeypot. Alternia fuckers. Can't wait to be done with this job it reeks all over.

**\-- timaeusTestified [TT] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG]\--**

TG: roger that

TG: stop by my place if you need to crash. checked logs and all activity is normal here

Dave pushed himself away from his desk before unplugging his computers from their Ethernet chords. He then wiped everything related to P_413 and anything that had been downloaded since starting the project from his computer and switched his VPN location before plugging the computer back in. It was annoying when jobs effected his real life. His daily routine. He picked up the business card he'd gotten from their current employer and turned it in-between his fingers. The front and back were both laminated which felt bougie and the front was bright green with the white letters  'Doc Scratch' on them. The card had been passed on from the _intelligence center_ which was just a fancy way to say Roxy's bedroom. She handled the job hunting and connected him and Dirk with clients she found from who-knows-where on the deep web. Dave was grateful he didn't have to deal with all of the reverse psychology and paranoid bullshit that went down in her private messages. She had probably already heard about Dirk's situation and was finding a safe-house for him to stay. Maybe she even sent Jade or Jake to look after him just in case.

That reminded Dave that he hadn't seen Dirk in a while and it was starting to make something itch up inside him. Being away from his brother so long made him feel uncomfortable. Like something was going to happen and he wouldn't be able to stop it. Maybe that was just his poorly-managed separation anxiety again like Rose always said. It had been decided that the two main hackers for the group shouldn't be in the same building in case someone did manage to track them down. If that ever happened, Dave wanted it to be him that was found. Maybe that was just what everyone who loved someone said but Dave meant it.

Dave loved his brother. Dirk was his idol but he was also so much more than that. He was stoic and level-headed and so smart that Dave felt hopelessly left behind but he also didn't mind a single bit. Because it was Dirk and Dirk was perfect and that was just the way things _were_. Dirk was the one that took them out of the Foster system and off the streets after their dad went too far one night and their mom was passed out in the kitchen with a bottle of whiskey. Dirk worked two shit jobs at a call center and convenience store just to feed them and he was only 2 years older than Dave. If there was one thing Dave knew, it was that no one was more amazing than his brother. If anyone deserved to live and experience the nice things in the world it was Dirk and Dave was determined to pay him back for giving him something reminiscent of a childhood.

Dave blinked as a notification popped up on his screen. He opened it and frowned when he saw English's blaring green text.

**\-- golgothasTerror [GT] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 10:20 --**

GT: G'day young Strider. Im just passing along the intel that im with dirk at the moment and that not a single thing will happen to a hair on his blonde head while this english is around. Rest assured that your brother is under lock and key.

TG: ok

GT: You know i always get the feeling that perhaps youre not very fond of me. Although i cant for the life of me remember a time i ever did anything to you.

TG: ok

GT: I suppose ill chalk this up to some nasty puberty shenanigans. Just know your brother is safe. Ta!

Dave considered sending another not-so-passive-aggressive "ok" but instead just closed the chat window. English had a point: he had never done anything to Dave. He was, however, the object of his brother's affections but due to him being denser than the depths of the Pacific ocean he had somehow managed to continuously both lead on as well cause extensive heartbreak to Dirk over the years. It'd been six years and Dave didn't think his brother had made any headway at all with his crush and infuriatingly he seemed to be perfectly fine with that. Dave wasn't fine with that. Maybe he was too protective.

Or maybe he was just jealous.

Dave spun in his chair and then checked the network logs again. Still nothing out of the ordinary. He tapped his foot on the steel beam on the underside of his chair. Outside the sun was beginning to spill orange light into the room. Crows perched on the phone wires outside, staring in, tilting their heads. Something felt wrong but he didn't know what. The itchy feeling was back, scratching away at the inside of his skin. He couldn't work like this, not that he could anyway before Dirk messaged him their next course of action. Before he could stop himself his fingers were already typing.

**\-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering timaeusTestified [TT] at 10:32--**

TG: hey

TG: where are you?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very excited to continue this idea. If you have any ideas or suggestions I'd be very happy to see them and perhaps incorporate them into the story as I write. Thank you for reading.


End file.
